E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - KACC Offers Reward For Businessmen's Arrest

Anti-corruption police have offered a reward for the arrest of two businessmen believed to be at the centre of investigations into the Anglo Leasing affair. The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission is looking for Mr Deepak Chamanlal Kamani and his brother, Mr Rashmi Chamanlal Kamani, to explain their role in the affair.

According to the commission, the Kamanis are wanted for questioning to determine their role in the Anglo Leasing affair and security-related contracts. In an advertisement appearing elsewhere in this newspaper, the commission says it would give Sh100,000 to anybody willing to give information on their whereabouts.

All information will be treated in confidence by the Justice Aaron Ringera-led commission. Anyone with information can reach the commission through telephone number 2717318 or 310722 extension 155 or email kamaninfor@intregrity.go.ke or any person at KACC offices. The commission says it has not been able to trace the two despite searching for them in their home in Nairobis Kyuna estate. The commission believes their answers could help in filling gaps in the investigations.

Says the statement: "These persons have not been traced by investigators from the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission who want to question them on their involvement in these contracts. "The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission is therefore offering a reward of Sh100,000 to any person who will provide information leading to the location and subsequent questioning of the two."

KACC is looking for the Kamanis just days after the Public Accounts Committee tabled its report in Parliament in which it indicted top officials in the Government and said President Kibaki knew about the multi-billion shilling scandal.

Among those PAC wants investigated are Vice-President Moody Awori and former ministers Kiraitu Murungi and David Mwiraria. Mr Deepak Kamani was interviewed by anti-corruption police after his name was mentioned in Parliament as one of those possibly involved in financing the tamper-proof passport deal, one of the suspect Anglo Leasing projects.

Although the officers asked for his passport, they returned it to him and he was released without a charge. Their father surrendered his passport to the Government in February when he was ordered to do so. Other than the Anglo Leasing affair, the Kamani family is also known through their company, Kamsons Ltd, which was responsible for the importation of Mahindra jeeps from India for the police in the 1990s. The vehicles poor performance turned the police into a laughing stock.

The little available information shows that the close-knit family lives in a mansion in the exclusive leafy Kyuna estate. A Liverpool-based firm, Saagar Associates, owned by Ms Sudha Ruparell, a member of the Kamani family, was found to be Anglo Leasings agent in the passports deal. The Anglo Leasing scandal involved an inflated Sh2.7 billion for tamper proof passports for the Immigration department and a further Sh4 billion for police forensic laboratories.

It was Saagars accounts manager, Mr Colin Flynn, who signed both contracts. Yesterday, Environment minister Kivutha Kibwana defended the President over the scandal saying the Head of State was clean.

Prof Kibwana said President Kibaki ordered investigations into the scandal and ordered the sacking of those involved, among them permanent secretaries and other senior government officials. He said nobody gave the Public Accounts Committee evidence that the President had obstructed their work. Instead the Head of State allowed former Governance and Ethics PS John Githongo to record Cabinet ministers without interference.

Prof Kibwana said the committees report was incomplete as it dealt only with the scandal between 2003 to date and left the first phase, which started in 1997 to 2002 and was worth Sh35.8 billion. PAC, he added, should investigate the scandal from its inception: Who were involved, how much money was paid, to whom, and by whom, before tabling a complete report. All of those who were involved in both Kanu and Narc, he said, must face the law.

Parliament, he added, should prioritise amending the law on wealth declaration to make declarations public. And Government spokesman Alfred Mutua described reports in the media that some individuals paid for the Presidents medical bills during his hospitalisation in Britain as inaccurate. President Kibakis medical bill, he added, was covered by the Parliamentary Health Insurance Scheme.

The PAC accepted the authenticity of a tape recording in which former Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi allegedly said that Mr Anura Perera had been involved in security matters and that he supported "our chief" when he was in hospital. In a message posted in his website, Dr Mutua said it was the President who assigned Mr Githongo. He said: "President Mwai Kibaki has from the onset been leading the fight against corruption which included him allocating Mr John Githongo a special assignment for that purpose.

"It was President Kibaki who directed that investigations be carried out on all cases of corruption and comprehensive reports be prepared for his action," he added.

Dr Mutua said Mr Githongos briefings were progress reports on the investigations carried out by KACC. He, like Presidential Press Service director Isaiya Kabira, said the President took action which led to the removal of PSs and senior officials named in a special audit report by the Controller and Auditor-General.